>> pelley: tonight, they have 90 minutes to prove seconds count. the number two men on the tickets face off in their only debate of the campaign. can biden and ryan change a very tight race? reports from jan crawford and nancy cordes. new numbers today show an improvement in the foreclosure crisis. anthony mason tells us what this means for the economy. officials say the pharmacy linked to that deadly outbreak of meningitis was operating illegally. dr. jon lapook has the latest. and elaine quijano on a debt america can never fully repay. owed to this hometown hero. >> this is awesome. okay? ( cheers ) yeah.

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. tonight's face-off between vice president joe biden and congressman paul ryan is getting a lot more attention than vice presidential debates usually get. the obama campaign is looking to biden to stop the momentum mitt romney has enjoyed since the debate in denver, which governor romney was widely perceived to have won. ryan's job is to keep romney's momentum rolling. today's national gallup poll of likely voters shows governor romney with a slender lead of one point over the president. of course, that's within the margin of error so it's essentially a tie. tonight's debate isality centre college in danville, kentucky. nancy cordes and jan crawford are there. first we'll go to nancy, covering the vice president's campaign. nancy. >> reporter: scorkt the vice president arrived here in kentucky today after self days

of intense preparation in his home state of delaware and several people there with him told us the president's weak performance in his own debate didn't so much change the strategy as raise the stakes and thails the vice president is very well aware he needs to have a better night than the president did. you recall when the president was preparing for his own debate, he called it a drag. well, the campaign is making it very clear that the vice president enjoyed his preparation, enjoys debating. they even released the vice president and what we learned one of six full-scale 90 movie minute mock debates. and, scott, here's why they're hopeful. they say the vice president is an old pro at this. he more than held his own in debates in the democratic primaries four years ago, and in his debate against sarah palin. >> pelley: well, nancy, that old pro will be facing a debate rookie on the national stage. jan crawford is covering paul ryan. jan. >> reporter: well, scott, paul ryan, as he has been reminding everyone, has never done this kind of national debate before. he said yesterday it was kind of

a nervous situation because the vice president is such an experienced debater. his aides tell me they think biden will come out firing. they've watched more than a dozen of the vice president's past debates. they say they were impressed by his focus and his discipline. and they tell me tonight that ryan's challenge is to stay on his own message, show his own discipline and not take the vice president's bait. now, ryan has said he believes the vice president's achilles' heel is the president's record. so you can expect to see him try to prosecute that record tonight. ryan is a numbers guy. he's a policy wonk. he is not lacking in confidence. in fact, this afternoon, he released his own photo on the debate stage on a walk-through saying, "let's get this done." even though he hasn't done this kind of debate, scott, remember, he's done hundreds of interviews and town halls and meetings, all defending that complex budget plan of his for the better of the last two years. >> pelley: jan, thank you. cbs news live coverage of the vice presidential debate begins right here at 9:00 eastern time and that is 6:00 in the west.

the election will come down, of course, to nine states that are toss-ups today and will tip the balance on election night. tonight, we have new polling from three of them. in virginia, our quinnipiac university/cbs news/"new york times" poll finds the president's lead up a point, 51% to 46. in colorado, the lead is flipped. with romney now ahead 48% to 47. and in wisconsin, home state of paul ryan, the president's lead has been cut in half. it is now 50% to 47. dean reynolds is in another of the swing states, north carolina, with more about our poll tonight. dean. >> reporter: scott, governor romney has just finished speaking here at a big rally in arbville, north carolina, riding rising republican enthusiasm over this tightening race. and our poll today helps to explain why neither candidate seems able to pull away.

( applause ) in colorado, romney moved slightly ahead, benefitting from a strong debate. voters gave him a 72-16% margin on his performance. >> i need you to go out and find neighbors who voted for barack obama to come and join our team. >> reporter: 19% of voters in colorado say they're less likely to vote for the president because of the debate. while 26% say they're more likely to vote for romney. >> are you going to go to volleyball. >> reporter: liz payne of denver smnded to our poll. she was leaning towards romney before the debate and now she's sold. >> presidential debates definitely made me more likely to vote for romney because of the confidence he instilled. i felt like he had better answers. and definitely just really appeared much more presidential than president obama did. >> reporter: on the plus side for the president, 40% of colorado voters believe their state's economy is improving. half say mr. obama would be more helpful to the middle class.

in the race for virginia's 13 electoral votes, the president is holding his lead. 49% believe the president has clearly explained his plans compared to 34% for romney. independent arnold grunderman of springfield, virginia, is leaning toward the president but with reservations. >> i think that he's done what he possibly can, although he's been hammed strung by a congress that refuses to compromise and pass legislation. but sometimes i think he hasn't been forceful enough. >> after running for more than a year in which he called himself severely conservative, mitt romney is trying to convince you that he was severely kidding. >> reporter: dishonesty has been a postdebate democratic line of attack against romney. now 47% of likely voters in virginia see romney as honest and trustworthy, but 59% say that about the president. and yet among the voters we

surveyed, on the question of which candidate has stronger leadership qualities, the answer, scott, was mitt romney. >> pelley: deerng thank you very much. there was good news for the president's hopes today. in a new report that shows home foreclosures are down 16% nationwide, down to the lowest level in five years. brighter news except for one state. anthony mason talked to a homeowner there. >> reporter: 73-year-old josephine graham's florida house is in foreclosure. >> my whole life since 1990 has been in this place. >> reporter: graham, a home health care worker, fell behind in her payments after two hurricanes damaged her house, and the recession cut back her work hours. her home's now valued at about $80,000. but graham owes more than twice that. >> i would like to be in this house, but if they come, my car is big enough for me to move

into. >> reporter: florida now leads the nation in foreclosures, but slowly, across the country, the picture is improving. the 180,000 foreclosure filings reported in september are less than half the 367,000 that were reported at the peak of the crisis in march of 2010. and realty track's darin bloomquist says the end is now in sight. >> 2014 is the first we're we could expect to see the numbers return to anywhere close to normal. >> reporter: another encouraging sign-- among homeowners refinancing this year, 81% are getting new loans at the same or lower balances. in 2006,equacy qaet% were refinancing to get bigger loans with a higher balance, which means homeowners are paying down their debt. but millions, like josephine graham, are still struggling. >> i keep hoping i will win the lottery, but that's a dream. i keep hoping that money will

come from somewhere, and that's a dream. i wish the mortgage people would drop dead, but that is also a dream. >> reporter: realty track estimates that 12 million homeowners are still underwater. that is, they owe more than their homes are now worth. >> pelley: brutal. >> reporter: yeah. >> pelley: anthony, we saw some news today, some modestly improved news on jobs. let's show the folks at home. the number of people claiming jobless benefits for the first time was 339,000. that's a drop of 30,000. it's the lowest in more than four years. how do you explain that drop? how much should we read into it? >> reporter: well, it's a sharp drop and even the labor department said today there may be some distortions to the seasonal adjustments in there. a better barometer is the four-week moving average, that fell to 364,000 first-time claims. that's the lowest in six months and that's an encouraging number. >> pelley: we got word tase taid from the centers for center

disease control that 14,000 people may have received the tainted steroid shots that sometimes led to meningitis. idaho has become the 11th state to report an infection. there are now 170 cases and 14 people have died. we asked dr. jon lapook to look into that massachusetts pharmacy that appears to be the source of the contaminated drugs. >> reporter: the new england compounding center, necc, shipped more than 17,000 vials of the single drug to 23 states. today, dr. madeleine biondolillo, the safety director of the massachusetts department of health said: that's because massachusetts law says compounding pharmacies, which mix custom-made medicines, must have a prescription for every patient for each dose they send out. it appears necc shipped the tainted vials of steroids to medical facilities in bulk,

without these prescriptions. cbs news called the necc for a response. the company did not immediately respond. today, government health officials acknowledge there is a regulatory gap when it comes to compounding pharmacies. for instance, massachusetts does not have the authority to track how many vials of a drug are produced. at the federal level, the food and drug administration does not have clear authority to examine records in a compounding pharmacy. the f.d.a. is seeking more authority. pharmacist eric kastango served on a panel creating federal safety standards for the compounding pharmacy industry. who is minding the store in terms of regulation? >> the f.d.a. has worked very hard over the last several years to try to promulgate regulations to clearly define when does a compounding pharmacy exceed its authority and become a manufacturer under the purview of the f.d.a. >> reporter: the cdc has found so far the main fungus responsible for the meningitis is called exserohilum.

this organism has never been found to cause meningitis before and a panel of infectious disease experts has been called in to figure out how to diagnose and treat it. >> pelley: a still-developing story, john. thank you very much. the suspect in the colorado theater massacre changes his appearance again. we know more now about the condition of that 14-year-old activist shot by the taliban. and what's killing the oysters? it's an early warning on a disturbing change in our oceans. when the cbs evening news continues. no most whitening strips 2 hour whitening kit is proven to quickly remove surface stains and deep stains in just two hours. [ female announcer ] rembrandt® deeply white™: whiten in just 2 hours.

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>> pelley: in colorado today, prosecutors added 10 counts of attempted murder to the charges against james holmes. he now faces 152 count in all in that movie theater massacre back in july that left 12 dead and 58 wounded. barry petersen is at the courthouse in sen tebl, colorado, tonight. barry. >> reporter: well, scott, there were more changes in holmes' appearance today. he still has the short-cut hair but now he has big, bushy sideburns, what are called mutton chops. he was attentive, and for the first time since i have seen him he actually talked to his attorney during the hearing. defense attorney daniel king said even four months into the case, as he put it, we have not begun to understand the nature and depth of mr. holmes' mental illness. this is the second time the defense has referred to holmes' mental illness, but there was no suggestion that would be his

defense. for that, he would need a psychiatric evaluation that could take six months. and now there is concern from both prosecution and the defense about the well-being of witnesses, including dr. lynne fenton, the psychiatrist holmes saw when he was a student at the university of colorado. because her name has been made public, including her appearance at a hearing in august, prosecutors say she hasn't been able to live at home. this investigation has already generated close to 20,000 documents, but witnesses are still being interviewed and evidence analyzed and the case could reach an extraordinary tens to hundreds of thousands more documents. both sides say they're going to need a lot more time to deal with all of this information. the judge will decide later this month about post poping a hearing perhaps until early next year. that hearing to decide if there is enough evidence to go to trial. >> pelley: barry, thank you. we told you last night about that 14-year-old pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the

taliban. today, she was flown to a military hospital. malala yousufzai was famous for speak out in support of education for girls. she was a celebrity, really. and that's why islamic extremists stopped her school bus and shot her. candlelight marches were held in pakistani cities. malala is in critical condition, but we're told that she's able to move her arms and leg slightly. oysters may be at risk from the very ocean they call home. that's next. that helps you stay at your optimal health: in every bottle you get the number one doctor and pharmacist recommended, most complete multivitamin backed by thirty years of science. try centrum® silver. visit centrum-dot-com for your three dollar coupon. that was me... the day i learned i had to start insulin for my type 2 diabetes. me... thinking my only option was the vial and syringe dad used. and me... discovering once-daily levemir® flexpen.

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>> pelley: the price of corn shot up 5% today after the government predicted this year's harvest will be the smallest in six years. much of the crop has been damaged by drought. another kind of crop also dependent on water is being threatened by changes in the environment. and john blackstone tells us about that. >> reporter: on the shores of washington state's olympic peninsula, bill deweya a farmer, a shellfish farmer. he's been raising oysters, clams, and muscles for 30 years. >> i'm in shellfish heaven. >> reporter: the hatchery pumps in sea water to nurture baby oysters. this looks just like dark water when you first look at it. >> right. that's what it looks like. but in fact there's 20 million baby oysters in this little tank in front of us here. >> reporter: but suddenly the ocean water is preventing new

oysters from forming shells. they die. >> it disostles the shells of the oysters. >> reporter: they're very nucial. he described the die-off to hundreds of scientists in monterey, california. they call is ocean acidification, and with google, produced a globe showing the long-term impact. the deepening red illustrates the expected rise in ocean acid levels over the next three centuries. what is turning the oceans to acid is carbon dioxide from cars and factories. 30% of co2 released into the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans. >> we are the canaries in want of coal mine, so to speak. >> reporter: at the hatchery, the sea water pumped in is now constantly monitored so the intakes can be closed when acid levels rise. >> inevitably, as the ocean

conditions get worse, we're not going to have a choice. we're only going to have bad water so we need to figure out how to work with it. >> reporter: for now, the hatchery can manage acid levels, but in nature, millions and millions of baby oysters are an important part of the food chain that is now threatened by ocean acidification. >> so if you start dissolving and destroying theerkz there are other bigger fish that get affect because they don't have food to eat any more. >> reporter: there is now so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, that scientists say acid levels in the ocean will keep rising for 50 years, even if emissions are cut immediately. john blackstone, cbs news, quilcene, washington. >> pelley: astronomers tell us they have discovered a planet that they believe is largely made out of diamond. it is in our galaxy, the milky way, about 230 trillion miles from earth. the surface temperature there is nearly 4,000 degrees. a hero's journey came full circle with a few steps on a

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just begin with america's favorite soups. bring out chicken broccoli alfredo. or best-ever meatloaf. go to campbellskitchen.com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. >> pelley: the excitement of friday night lights may seem a world apart from the battlefields of afghanistan but for one soldier, a trip back to his high school football field was a first step to reclaim his life. elaine quijano was there.

>> reporter: the homecoming game in vassar, michigan, always draws a big crowd. but this year was special. they welcomed home one of their favorite football stars, a man who went on to become army staff sergeant travis mills. >> this is awesome. okay. ( cheers ) >> yeah. >> reporter: mills was on his third tour in afghanistan. in april, a bomb exploded beneath him. >> i set my bag down, about five, six seconds later i wroak up on the ground. >> mill' 6'3" 250-pound body bore the brunt of the blast. two other men were wounded. >> my medic came up and i said you stay away from me. go see my men and let me go. he told me to shut up and let him do his job. >> reporter: he woke up at a military hospital in germany four days later. april 14, you turned 25 years old. >> yup. >> reporter: and you're told you don't have any arms or legs.

what goes through your mind? >> i thought of my soldiers how they were doing and i guess i was ducking my wife's phone calls because i felt embarrassed. i didn't want to talk to anybody. >> reporter: what were you embarrassed about? >> i knew the possibility of getting hit was there and i thought when i got hitis a horrible person and must have done something wrong in life and i was getting paid back for it but that's not it. >> reporter: he's been recovering at walter reed national military center for six months. he's learning to use four prosthetic limbs and do things once routine, like feeding his daughter chloe. >> that was ad any one! >> reporter: what's it like being back in your home town. >> it was great. i drove into town and i couldn't believe the yellow ribbons and the signs, welcome home, travis. >> reporter: more than 6,000 people lined main street to honor mills, and his wife, kelsey. >> everything i was going through and all that, my

beautiful wife stood by my side the whole time. so i want to thank her real quick. ( applause ) >> reporter: mills heard plenty of cheers when he played on this field in high school but never like this. he is still on active duty and hopes to one day train soldiers at fort bragg. >> this is not the end of my life, especially having a one-year-old there. she'll never see me give up or fail. i mean, she'll see me fall down, but i'll get back up and i'm just going to keep going. >> reporter: this isn't how staff sergeant travis mills imagined his life, but it is a life he is grateful to have. elaine quijano, cbs news, vassar, michigan. >> pelley: and that's the cbs evening news for tonight. we'll be back at 9:00 eastern time with live coverage of the vice presidential debate. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, i'm scott pelley. see you again soon. sch

this is 9 news now. we begin with breaking news. trains are being evacuated at the pentagon metro station. leaves on the track caught fire in the tunnel somehow and that created a lot of smoke. firefighters are there. right now trains are single tracking between pentagon station and lean faint plaza. expect delays both direction -- l'enfant plaza. expect delays both directions on the blue and yellow lines. good evening. we are just hours away from the first and only vice presidential debate joe biden under pressure to do well after president obama's lackluster performance last week. we've got anita brikman live with the story from mclean but begin with a preview. >> reporter: both vice president joe